As the supply from the exciter is entirely negligible the questions will be asked: Whence comes this great energy and power? How is it produced? The answer is simple. It is derived from the belts which perform the work of transporting the charges imparted to them against the repulsion exerted by the spheres. This force can be approximately determined. The permanent charge on a sphere will be, as shown above, 0.00145 coulomb or 4,350,000 electrostatic units. But 16 percent of this quantity is “bound” and should be left out of consideration. With due regard to the opening on the underside, the free capacity of each terminal may be estimated 222 centimeters, so that at five million volts Q = 222 x 5,000,000/300 = 3,700,000 electrostatic units. The moving charge will be distributed over a length of the belt about equal to the height of the insulating column and with some allowances it may be taken at 24 feet. Assuming a belt speed of 6000 feet per minute this distance will be traversed in 0.24 of a second and, consequently, the belt charge to be considered is 0.24 of the whole carried per second; that is, 0.0000528 coulomb or 158,400 electrostatic units. The upper end of the charged area is 7 1/2 feet and the lower 31 1/2 feet from the center of the sphere. The former is thus r = 225 c.m. and the latter d = 945 c.m. The charged area of the belt being 120 x 720 = 86400 square c.m., it follows that the density of the charge is 158400/86400 = 1.8333 electrostatic units. Accordingly, if the distribution of the charge is perfectly uniform, a transversal strip of the belt one centimeter long will contain a quantity q=120 x 1.8333 = 220 e.s.u.

Considering now a surface element of vanishing length dx, the charge on the same will be qdx = 220 dx e.s. units of quantity and that on the sphere being Q = 3,700,000 e.s. units, the repulsive force acting on the surface element at a distance x from the center of the sphere, will be [insert image]. Integrating this expression between the limits r and d, and substituting the values for Q and q, the force repelling the charged side of the belt is found to be [insert image] dynes or 2.81093 kilograms. At a speed of 100 feet or 30 meters per second the work is 84.3279 kilogram meters per second, equivalent to 0.82691 kilowatt. Both belts will therefore perform the work of 1.65382 kilowatts. This is 33 percent less than the theoretical electrical activity of the machine and as the power developed by the belts must be, at least, equal to the electric power one is apt to reach the conclusion that the sucking points do not draw off the entire charge, as has been tacitly assumed, and the current, instead of being 0.00022 will be proportionately smaller, that is, 0.0001654 ampere. But this view is found untenable for the limit to performance is imposed by natural law and not by the defects of a device which, moreover, could be readily improved. The discrepancy between the calculated power of the belts and the electric activity of the machine was all the more puzzling as the two quantities could not be harmonized by imagining any kind of theoretical working conditions. Finally, however, I recognized that the charge can not be uniformly distributed on the belt but must increase from the lower to the upper portion of the same. Indeed, such an effect might have been expected although the surface charge on an insulating body is not very mobile.

Another view of the high-voltage generator. Tracks are provided so that the equipment may be rolled out into the open

Suppose that the belt carried a film of oil meeting with a downward current of air. The obvious result would be a thickening of the film toward the top. Similarly, the electric film on the belt is “thickened” through the repulsion exerted by the terminal and the attendant piling up of the charge and it is only so that the exact balance between the mechanical and electrical power can be, under all conditions, automatically established. (See explanatory note on page 165.) The equality of these two quantities is an absolute and inevitable consequence of the law of conservation of energy, the remarkable feature of this process of dynamo-electric transformation being that it is effected with the highest efficiency, apparently without evolution of heat. Of course, there are great losses in the operation of the machine, but they do not concern the process itself.

In an instrument designed primarily for scientific investigation, the efficiency is of relatively small importance and I shall dwell on it for the sole purpose of showing that in any application as a power producer such a generator would be hopelessly handicapped. The air friction of the belts at a speed of 30 meters per second will require about 3.73 kilowatt. With the repulsion work, the load on them will be 5.93 kilowatt. Under the working conditions as outlined, the belt drive may have an efficiency of 90 percent and the motor 85 percent so that energy will be drawn from the electric mains at the rate of 7.75 kilowatt. The net performance of the sprayer at 20,000 volts will be 1.324 kilowatt but taking into account the efficiency of the whole apparatus, at least 1.6 kilowatt must be assumed. There are also dielectric, magnetic, and radiation losses, making the total power input, perhaps, 9.5 kilowatt while the output is only 2.2 kilowatt. If this estimate is reasonably approximate, an over-all efficiency of 23 percent is about as high as can be expected from any electrostatic generator of this kind.

It was shown that the charge on each sphere at 5,000,000 volts is 0.00145 coulomb but as only 0.00022 coulomb can be furnished per second, it will take about 6.6 seconds to charge the spheres to the full potential. I have assumed that the current from the sprayer is continuous and not a rectified one, in which case the efficiency will be appreciably smaller. The streamers from pointed electrodes are generally considered as a sort of corona involving an insignificant loss of energy, but this view is erroneous. Such a discharge is very concentrated, approximating an arc in intensity, so much, in fact, that the heat evolved sometimes imposes a limit to the use of points.

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TCBA News Volume 5 - Issue 2 - Page 15